Even before he stumbled on the dark-eyed boy, the Thirsty Camel was an uncommon camel. He liked to lead, for one thing, and if you know camels, you know most of them are confi rmed followers. The Thirsty Camel had been on almost every caravan trail from Marrakech to Isfahan and from Cairo to Juba, and he had seen his share of unusual things. Then he encountered the boy. They shared the trail for a short time and then the boy disappeared, leaving something behind that was more unusual than anything the Thirsty Camel had encountered in all his travels. He did not know who the boy was, or where he had gone. What the Thirsty Camel did know was that suddenly, he could do things he had never been able to do before. He kept his newfound skills mostly to himself—something in his hump told him to, and as you probably know, the Camel Creed says, “Heed your hump.” As he battled bloodthirsty emirs, foiled ruthless bandits, outwitted sorcerers and rescued princesses, the Thirsty Camel learned that humans rarely looked beyond the surface, and usually underestimated a scruffy-looking camel with unusual talents.

When Peter McDonald’s children asked for a bedtime tale one evening many years ago, he was unable to recall a single story from his childhood. Luckily, he remembered another time, when he sat before a campfi re at Saqqara while the bedouin related the ancient and famous adventures of the Thirsty Camel. After entertaining his children with the stories, Peter decided to write them down, as a service to other parents who might find themselves in a similar predicament.